OCR Text |
Show Juggernauts 1920 Models Auto Toll Is Staggering In the U. S. One Person is Killed By an Automobile On an Average Every 35 Minutes the Year Around. JUGGERNAUTS 1820 MODEL B Take all the fatal accidents that happen on all tho steam railroads In the United States; on all tho river, lake, and coastwise steam, sail and motor boats; In all airplane transportation; trans-portation; on all tho overhead, underground un-derground and surfaco electric lines; In all the coal mines; In all the foundries foun-dries and blast furnaces; in nil the factories and machine shops; In every ev-ery more or less dangerous industry of whRtever sort. Take all these varied var-ied and politic sources of sudden death and add up together all the fatalities In each. Then multiply tho staggering sum total of mortality by 3, and you will have a product still far below the annual sum total of deaths In the United States from the devastating record of the automobile auto-mobile There Is In the country an organization organi-zation known ns the National Safety Council. Its executive committee held a meeting a few days ago In Atlantic At-lantic City. It was at this meeting that tho above generalizations of motor mo-tor traffic mortality were presented and supported by incontrovertible facts and figures. Theso facts and figures fully bear out the statement that In tho United StatCB one person 1b killed by an automobile on an average av-erage every 35 minutes the year round. And the numbers ot these death- t dealing juggernauts aro increasing by leaps and bounds In our city street and In our state and interstate highways. high-ways. It Is estimated that by the end of this year, 1920, thero will bo ten million In operation, with every prospect that tho number will go on Increasing enormously. Every one of them turned lolse on the road is a potential multiple of tho appallng number of deaths sudden and lingering; linger-ing; of malmlngB and mangllngs and mutilations Innumerable. Now, what are wo golS to do about it? That somothlnG has got to bo done, and speedily, Is self ovt-dent. ovt-dent. Tho automobllo Is not merely mere-ly hero; It is overwhelmingly hero. It Is going to stay. It has becomo as vitally Important a part in tho mechanism of our dally llfo as tho railroad, tho telephone, tho electric light and tho power plant. That being be-ing tho fact, how aro we going to reduce re-duce to a minimum Its awful potentialities poten-tialities of human destruction? Up to dato all efforts to that end have been moro or lew Impotent. In Chicago during tho first six months of this year tho number of automobllo automo-bllo deaths were twonty-flvo per cent greater than during tho previous year. And this notwithstanding the renewed and extraordinary efforts put forth by tho authorities to reduce re-duce tho danger. What happened In Chicago was doubtless duplicated In ' many other, If not nil, our largo cities. cit-ies. Mr. S. J. Williams of Chicago, secretary of tho National Safety Council, expresses tho opinion that there Is no ono problem demanding graver study on tho part of our law- ,. ' -. makers, National, State and municipal, munici-pal, than this great and cumulating automobllo danger to life and limb. It Is, In Mr. Williams' view, a matter mat-ter In which the entlro automobllo Industry is especially concerned. Everyone Ev-eryone connected with that industry should, and doubtless will, glvo every ajd of net and suggestion within their power to nil authorities In their effort to mlnlmlzo this truly appalling appal-ling public peril. Mr. Williams thinks that much might be done by uniformity of safety safe-ty legislation. Ilules and reglatlons lit ono state aro often nt variance with those ot other states. The laws governing Issuance of licenses to drive automobiles should be stiffened, stiffen-ed, made uniform In all tho states, nnd rigidly enforced. In no state In tho union Bhould a person be permitted per-mitted to drlvo on the highway with an automobllo until ho has passed a rigid examination as to skill and personal per-sonal character by a duly constituted state commission. Theso aro but the broad, generalized generaliz-ed preliminaries suggested by tho National Na-tional Safety Council. Still another nnd broader preliminary Is a widespread wide-spread public realization of tho magnitude mag-nitude of this Increasing dnnger that 1 abroad .everywhere In the country and of tho Imperative need for its Immediate abatement. Harvey's Weekly. |